German Medal Winners at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Part 2

In the second week of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Germany has shown off its athletic ability by climbing towards the top of the Olympic medal charts. With 37 medals so far, Germany is in 5th place right behind Great Britain. There are only a few more competitions left, but Germany is fighting to add a few more Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals to their already impressive number. Remember, this is the smallest number of German athletes participating in the Summer Olympics in more than 20 years. Continue reading to find the latest wins and also check out Part 1 to see the previous medals won by Germany in the 2012 games.

Gold Medal Winners

Athletics – Men’s Discus Throw

Robert Harting claimed the Gold medal in the Discus Throw competition with an impressive distance of 68.27 meters. People are already talking about his Hulk like celebration where he tore apart his shirt after the winning throw and will surely go down as one of the more memorable moments of the 2012 games.

Beach Volleyball – Men’s Beach Volleyball

The German Men’s Beach Volleyball team made history by being the first European team to win the Gold medal in the competition. Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann beat Brazilians Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti in a suspenseful final. The Brazilian team contested a crucial call that cost them the game, but after blowing off some heat, they agreed with the call and accepted the German team as the champions.

Canoe Sprint – Canoe Single 1000m Men

The German’s have proven their Canoeing skills during this years Olympics with numerous wins. Sebastian Brendal won the Gold medal in the 1000m Men’s competition by nearly a second. It comes as no surprise after Brendal took home the European championships the last 3 years in a row.

Canoe Sprint – Men’s Canoe Double 1000m

Peter Kretschmer and Kurt Kuschela breezed past the Belarus defending champions to claim Gold in the Men’s Canoe 1000m sprint. With a time of 3:33.804, the German team finished with time to spare as Belarus won silver with a time of 3:35.206. This win comes after the German duo won the World Cup event by over 2 seconds back in May of this year.

Canoe Sprint – Women’s Kayak Double 500m

Keeping up with the trend, Germany took home the gold in the Women’s Kayak Double 500m thanks to an impressive performance by Tina Dietze and Franziska Weber. The win was able to take the title away from the Hungarian team which took Gold in the past two Olympic Games. With a 1.06 second lead, Germany showed off their skill and made it clear that they truly deserved Gold.

Silver Medal Winners

Athletics – Men’s Shot Put

Germany’s David Storl took the Silver medal in the Shot Put competition with a personal best score of 21.86 meters. His distance surprised everyone as no one else was able to even get past 21 meters except for the Gold medal winner, Tomasz Majewski from Poland, who took the top spot with 21.89m. It was an extremely close final!

Athletics – Women’s Javelin Throw

After attempting to beat the Javelin Throw World-record holder Barbora Spotakova from the Czech Republic, Germany’s Christina Obergföll was able to pull off the Silver medal after a few rough tries. Obergföll’s only in bounds throw of 65.16 meters was good enough for second place, but nowhere near the first place throw of 69.55 meters.

Athletics – Women’s Heptathlon

There were a few heart pounding moments after Lilli Schwarzkopf finished second in the Women’s Heptathlon, as the scoreboards showed her as being disqualified after completing the 800 meter final discipline. Officials at first claimed that Schwarzkopf had broken lanes too early, but after a second look, it was discovered that they had mistaken her with another runner. Officials apologized for the mistake, and Lilli Schwarzkopf was able to go to the podium with the Silver medal around her neck.

Canoe Sprint – Women’s Kayak Four 500m

The German team was expected to dominate in the Women’s Kayak K-4 500m event, but the Hungarian quartet was able to sneak past Tina Dietze, Katrin Wagner-Augustin, Franziska Weber and Carolin Leonhardt to break the 16-year dominance. Germany had won the Gold in the past 5 Olympic games.

Cycling – Track – Men’s Keirin

Although Germany was unable to break Great Britain’s dominance in track cycling, Maximilian Levy gave a great effort and almost took the lead. In the end, Levy took Silver after Great Britain’s Chris Hoy regained momentum coming out of the final turn and sneaked past the German rider.

Equestrian – Team Dressage

The Equestrian competitions have often been a promising sport in the Summer Olympic Games, but Germany’s decades-long domination of equestrian team dressage was put to an end by Great Britain. Germany was still able to take home the Silver medal after making the risky move of having a team of young riders that had no Olympic experience. On top of that, their prized horse was unable to compete in the competition as its rider Matthias Rath came down with mononucleosis before the games.

Gymnastics – Artistic – Men’s Parallel Bars

After winning Germany’s first Olympic medal in the Men’s Individual All-Around, Marcel Nguyen was able to capture another Silver medal in the Men’s Parallel Bars competition. Nguyen has become known as Germany’s gymnastics success story and was able to come in with a close second to China’s Feng Zhe.

Gymnastics – Artistic – Men’s Horizontal Bar

Germany came close to clinching Gold with a stunning performance by Fabian Hambuechen, but the Netherlands’ Epke Zonderland did slightly better in an impressive routine himself on the Horizontal Bar. Both athletes showed off their gravity defying skills and deserve the medals they received. I recommend looking for both routines online if you didn’t catch it during the original broadcast.

Bronze Medal Winners

Athletics – Women’s Javelin Throw

Germany took home the Silver medal with Christina Obergfoll’s throw in the Javelin competition, but Linda Stahl was able to claim the Bronze medal and stand next to her fellow teammate on the podium. Both girls were trying to beat the Czech Republic’s Barbora Spotakova who holds the World-record in the sport. At the end of the day, Germany can be proud of at least taking home two medals in the competition.

Canoe Sprint – Men’s Kayak Single 1000m

Germany’s Max Hoff was able to pull off a third place finish in the Men’s Kayak Single 1000m right behind Norway’s Eirik Veras Larsen and Canada’s Adam van Koeverden. Hoff’s Bronze medal win can be seen as an improvement over his fifth place finish in the 2008 Summer Olympic games in Beijing.

Canoe Sprint – Men’s Kayak Double 1000m

Martin Hollstein and Andreas Ihle were trying to defend their Gold medal win in the Men’s Kayak Single 1000m event from the 2008 Beijing games, but ultimately took third place with a Bronze medal. Hungary’s Rudolf Dombi and Roland Kokeny took the Gold after a fierce race with Germany and Portugal.

Fencing – Men’s Team Foil

Germany claimed their second Olympic fencing medal in the London games after a substantial victory over the United States for the third place finish. The team was able to pull off the Bronze medal after fellow teammate Sebastian Bachmann had to exit early due to an injury during the match.

Table Tennis – Men’s Team

It was a close match, but Germany was unable to defeat the Chinese for Table Tennis Gold of Silver. The German team still performed well against China and was able to win the Bronze medal after also placing third in the individual competition. Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov should still be proud of their win in a competition where it is expected for the Chinese to take the victory.

Stephen founded German Pulse and LGBT Germany out of a passion to introduce Americans to a Germany that goes beyond beer and polka (although with enough beer he has been known to polka it up a bit). He's a coffee addict, lover of wine and good times, a hit in the kitchen and editor of TV commercials. You can follow him on Twitter (@StephenWFuchs) to find out a lot more.